Well, Thursday we’ll have our hands on Blizzard’s new expansion, and this weekend we’ll see the first Level 80 characters. Among them will be the new Death Knights.

Afterall, nothing says “I love the new content” like having 24 of your guildies power you through to the end-game, leaving you standing there at the Frozen Throne stating “WTF? This sucks.” There should be an “Arsonist” achievement. Where you burn through content like you set it on fire with kerosene on purpose.

Let’s say you take the “casual” gamer’s approach. You know. Where you have fun with it? Where you read the quest text rather than download an add-on that replaces quests with 2 buttons: “Click to Accept” and “Click to Turn-In.” I’m wondering how long the Death Knight will feel “Heroic” to us regular gamers. (Because I think the Heroic feeling won’t last past the weekend for this weekend’s level 80 Death Knights. Because if they’re seriously happy at 80 this weekend, they can go ask the Ret Paladin community what happens when you feel good.)

I made a Death Knight in the beta. I ran through the quests, provided my feedback, made it to Hellfire Peninsula. It seems a strong class.

But what happens to them at 80? When they’re just another tanking class? Are they still going to feel “Heroic?” Or are they just going to be another flavor of class?

What’s going to make them Heroic? Storyline? Please. Are they all offspring of a randy Arthas and Innkeepers across Azeroth, and Kalimdor? Bloodbrothers of the Centaur King? Lay Brothers of the Scarlet High Self Opinion? Spiffy outfits? Let NPC’s be heroic with “color” text in their descriptions. I think by “Hero class” folks might be expecting more than “color.”

Naturally, their level 80 tanking prowess can’t be over the top. “Oh, great. Chuck Norris is here and he’s going to tank. You Druids, Paladins, and Warriors may as well drop raid and reroll Gnomes or something.” They’ll be as “Heroic” as anyone else in the roles they’ll be filling. “Heroic” must not mean “Overpowered.” That role’s filled with Ret Pallys whose tears can’t erase the fact they’re still pretty darn strong. And Warlocks.

A 55 level headstart? Does that make them “Heroic?” Ask them how Heroic they feel, in Terrokar, hunting down a wolf to get a dog face helm. It’s a cool helm, mind you, but for us Average Joes, not for the Heroes.

Either they meant “Shiney and new” when they said “Hero Class”, or they meant something else. I’m wondering what that something else is going to wind up being. I guess we’ll be finding out shortly.

And this weekend, when they hit 80, there’s either going to be great rejoicing, and a bloodletting in Alterac Valleys, and across the quest objectives.

Or, there’ll be a lot of gnashing of teeth and wailing. That is, if the servers manage any semblance of stability. There were enough Death Knights on the Beta Server to cause serious problems. Imagine Eleven Million players hitting the field.

It’s two more years of content. And it may well be the longest shark jump in history. But, then again, Dallas went on for 11 more years after someone shot J.R.. If Blizzard handed us a cold colander filled with leftover spaghetti noodles and said it was “Heroic” and priced it at $39.99 in a box at Best Buy, we’d probably be just as excited. I know I am.

🙂 In all fairness, the landscapes alone will be worth the price of admission to Northrend. Seriously. That haunted beach is going to blow you away. And that’s hour one.

7 Responses to Heroic, but for how long?

Hehe, I am sure in the end it’ll be ‘just another class’ like any other. The novelty will wear off and we’ll see how the DK fits in the grand scheme of things.

I am in no rush myself, I am quite entertained with azeroth by itself and will give the levelling mobs a wide birth so I can retain some semblance of a normal gaming environment.

I might not even buy wrath for a bit… what’s the rush? I don’t think there will be an expansion next year so if I consume all the content within a month from now I am going to struggle a bit with the next year or so without expansions.

My lovely wife isn’t raiding with me, or in the guild even. So her ingame “this is new” moments are long over. (I, on the other hand, finally encountered Illidian in the flesh just this last weekend. I wasn’t prepared. 😉 )

So now she’s got her level 70 Shaman that’s done nothing substantial but dailies for a LOOONG time and she’s really itching to get going again with something meaningful. And her Druid is at 69 and that means a few quests in the opening areas of Northrend and she’ll also be at 70.

Our own Death Knights will be started no sooner than December I imagine.

So here I am stuck in Afghanistan as WotLK comes out. Where was I during Burning Crusade’s release? Germany I think – was there for 3 weeks with no Internet playing Army games.

Bah. Just once I’d like to enjoy the new content when it’s truly new or to be with my guildies as they start leveling again. For that matter – I’m hoping when the *next* expansion pack comes out my oldest son and I can go geek out together at a midnight release somewhere.

Most of us here on our FOB have already pre-ordered WotLK and look forward to finally getting our hands on it a couple weeks after release. We’ll get to play – assuming the lag isn’t too high – or our bubble-gum and bailing wired together satellite internet is pulling enough juice for us all to game.

You’ll see us out there – we’re the ones that keep getting lag killed by the same mob in the same spot for an hour or more 😉

I have a sense of what you mean there, Tomas. I was stationed on Incirlik Airbase for two years. (Army Civilian working there.) To get internet, at the time, you had to have a phone account with the base. Then you had to be a paying member of the base club, and get their credit card. (MWR loves you!) That allowed you to then order internet service from their off-base provider partner. So basically phone line internet via the installations phone system through a turkish internet provider. My first apartment there was right across the street from “Tent City.” And the policy was anytime someone from Tent City wanted to call anywhere they’d grab a line. I got so many disconnects trying to talk to my own family I pretty much just gave up on phones until I got a cell phone. I paid the $25 a month for telephone service, so I could be reached in emergencies, but never became a club member. I had decent internet at work, but that’s not for games. That was a long two years!

You know, we’ve got some training FOB’s set up where I’m at now. And we’re always thinking “This isn’t training. FOB’s are supposed to represent the ‘real warfighting experience.’ These guys want air-conditioned tents and internet cafes???” Now you tell me you’ll be getting to play WotLK? Maybe their requests are for real. You’re not Air Force, are you? 😉

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lol – not airforce at all! The difference between the FOB’s and COP’s (Combat Outposts) are pretty drastic. I spent a week or so getting shelled on a little COP out near the Pak border this summer and have nothing good to say about the experience 😉

The FOB I’m now on is one of the larger in eastern Afghanistan. We have a few amenities like a small px and just recently a green bean coffee. The internet is a cooperative that I and several others here on the FOB setup. We found a provider – gathered the hardware (thus the tape and bubble-gum) and after setting up a payment system are able to (mostly) get some personal web-surfing, skype, and e-mail done. It’s a pain – particularly when a sat shot goes down or we have hardware problems (etc, etc) – and you have 100 people trooping to your room saying “hey – Internet’s down – what’s up?”

Still – it’s so much nicer than my last deployment that we put up with it!

I’ve been all over eastern (and some southern) Afghanistan and have to say that for the most part – our FOB’s are pretty crude compared to some of the really big established FOB’s in Iraq. That said – for the most part they’re comfortable – have AC and heat systems – and more and more are sprouting sat-dishes for Internet. As far as training FOB’s go – they can continue to suck – that way when we *do* get to theater – we’ve already experienced the worst – and can either handle what we get – or enjoy much more readily what we actually have.

Along those notes – we’ve all learned a new appreciation for at just what point the game becomes “unplayable” due to latency. Right now – 900ms or so is *awesome* and you’ll see the gamers logging on after work to run battlegrounds or grind or what have you. Around 3.5k or so – it starts getting a little stupid. Best to find a quiet spot and work on leveling trade skills or something.

Between going off FOB and all of the rest of our duties – we don’t get to play a lot. But when we get to – it’s nice. Almost like being home for a while.